On 11-11-15 05:05 PM, Mary Yugo wrote:
-He can use more reactant because he has better control.
It's just a niggle but I don't think, other than from what Rossi says,
we have any sure understanding of how he even purports to control the
device.
As far as I know, Rossi has never said how he controls the device.
He's said -- or implied -- that he has some amount of control over it,
and he's said that use of the electric heater is necessary for control.
But if he's ever described exactly how the heater is used to make it go
-- or stop -- I missed it. He starts it by heating it up, but after
that .... ? He's also said something to the effect that the cells can't
be "throttled", so it's not possible to operate them in a reduced power
mode, which seems odd considering the other assertions we've seen on
this list about the fineness of the control he has over the reaction
(comments about lack of control were from his blog, sorry, I haven't got
a URL for that and it was months ago, all I have is my fallible memory
to go on).
There's been lots of speculation about how the control works, and
there's been speculation about feedback to the heater controls, and
there's been speculation as to whether or not he was adjusting the heat
from moment to moment to keep the thing in the correct power band, but
as far as I know there's no solid information available from Rossi or
anyone else about any of this.
There's also been speculation about how he holds the power output in the
exact range needed to vaporize all the water without superheating the
steam, and how, if he's adjusting the power based on the internal water
level, he even can tell exactly what the internal water level is at a
given moment, but again, it's all just speculation. Rossi has said
nothing about this.
While we're on that subject, why is a safety heater needed in a highly
exothermic system? ("Safety heater" is Rossi's expression)
Why does the large band "safety" heater which surrounds the original
E-cat heat only (certainly mostly) the cooling water directly? How is
the output power of the cell regulated? What devices are used to
control it and how are they connected and where do they get their
sensor input? What sensors are used and where are they located.
Why was Rossi tweaking the heat in mid experiment during the session
dissected by Krivit in which Rossi peers nervously about and says
"stable, stable"? How does a safety heater quench the reaction? I
bet if you ask Rossi, he will tell you (in my opinion without reason)
that all this is secret. I could give you my opinion of why it's
secret but I already said it many times.
Note that when Rossi wants the system to shut down, he accomplishes it
by increasing coolant flow from self sustain mode, and when the heater
was on, by shutting it off. Note that in so-called self-sustaining
mode, he does not shut off the device by turning on the safety
heater. This whole business of heaters for safety (or for that matter
1/6 input power to output power for safety) doesn't make any sense
unless you use extremely convoluted and bizarre reasoning. Even then,
it would be much better done in a simpler way.
I'd still like to see one lovely gargantuan explosion -- out in the
desert where it couldn't hurt anyone.
Well, sure, explosions are fun. (That's why movies with lots of FX are
so popular. It's also one reason people like fireworks.)
With good measurements, it would be possible to estimate the yield
and from the device's size and mass, one could get a clue about
whether or not it was nuclear. On another forum, when I mentioned
that, someone objected that Rossi doesn't want to emphasize
explosions. If so, he wouldn't mention them himself as he has done on
his blog in trying without success to explain why a power generating
device uses a large heater for safety.
'
